WHAT CAN WE DO THAT WILL REALLY MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

Businesses get stuck. They can be stuck at a level of under-performance or equally stuck on a plateau of success - but wherever they are on that spectrum, they're caught in the trap of being who and what they are, doing what they do.

Breaking out of that straightjacket to radically alter direction, increase performance, or improve quality and/or innovation requires inspirational vision, challenging goals and a shared will to succeed - none of which is easy to conjure up when you're focused on the day-to-day issues of running a garage or dealership.

It's almost a chicken and egg situation; if business leaders can clarify, communicate and share a vision then they are likely to achieve success. But once they are successful they need to keep building that motivation and expanding that vision in order to keep themselves, their staff and their entire business offering, from becoming stale.

 
How can we become great?

Lack of training or resource is rarely the problem; what business owners and leaders struggle with is the issue of what they and their staff ought to do in order to really make a difference in terms of moving them forward and achieving optimum performance. This is a particular when 'how the business should be' tends to be defined by what competitors are doing, and driven by supplier demands and market trends. Obviously these have to be paid heed, but the real winners in any industry are those who can build on the 'givens' to create the 'great'.

Research taken from studies of coaching in the workplace shows that asking rather then telling people can lead to empowerment, innovation and commitment - all of which can dramatically increase motivation and performance results.

So one of the toughest problems business leaders and managers face is how to use the right questions to get the information and results they want. If you ask the wrong questions ('Why are you doing that?', 'Why are we failing to meet our targets', 'Who's fault is this?'} you can end up with a workforce who are perennially under-performing, unhappy and unmotivated.

But by asking BIG Questions such as 'How can we make a difference?', 'What would make our customers love us?', 'Who's the most important person in our business?', people can find shared values, new ways of working and renewed commitment, enabling them to be more productive and fulfilled.

BIG Questions should stop you in your tracks, encourage you to dig deep into the essence of how you do things and force you to think creatively about such issues as: What would we love to achieve? ; How would that make us feel?; What would that enable us to do?; How can we make it happen?

Successful organisations will anticipate change

There's no doubt that in future, success will go to those organizations that can learn and adapt the fastest. Part of that learning is for each organisation to discover and define, through questioning, exactly what 'excellence' means for them and to build on that in order to become the best they can be.

Currently there is a lot of focus on leadership as the magic key to success but you can't overlook that leaders are only effective if they have a group of people who are happy to be led.

One of the reasons why people 'work down in the gutter rather than aiming for the stars' is that business leaders and managers often concentrate on the small stuff and dictate that their staff do too. Really successful businesses tend to have people right throughout the organisation who aren't afraid to ask 'What if.?' and who are allowed to take risks finding out and developing answers.

Every organisation has the answers it needs within it; the challenge is to find a way of unlocking them and putting them into practice. Doing so enables a company to better generate competitive difference, customer loyalty and retention. This can be particularly important in times of change and upheaval, for example in merger or take-over situations, or where there is a change in key staff.

Our business development programme, The BIG Question has helped numerous businesses find appropriate ways of moving forward. The programme is modular and is designed to provide a balance between thought and action using tools which include one-to-one coaching, consultancy and group and individual training. Throughout, the emphasis is on generating motivation and creating shared enthusiasm across all levels of management and staff.

Satisfied clients have told us that the BIG Question works because it provides a framework for teams and individuals at all levels in a business to stop and really think about what they're doing. As Bertrand Russell once said, "It's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted."

© Dianne Bown-Wilson, The BIG Question